In America, we get the best candidate money can buy, and the news media decides who gets the money. Consequently, there are people who should be running for president of the United States who will never have a campaign. And there are people who are running who would be good chief executives, but who don't stand a chance because they cannot raise enough money.

Take, for example, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, a man of proven courage, and a true standard-bearer for what the Democratic Party is supposed to stand for. Yes, he is too "left" (America's ugliest curseword these days) for many, but he is also a champion of labor, minorities, and old-fashioned Constitutional patriotism.

On the other hand, there is Gen. Wesley Clark, who has spent most of his life as a Republican, has no political experience, and who is having quite a bit of trouble expressing his views, which change frequently. But Clark is good-looking and was already the darling of the news media, who pushed him into the presidential contest limelight over a period of two years.

Clark, therefore, is "electable," and can raise money. He is given more and more media time, as is Howard Dean, and the other candidates are given less. In the debates, articulate candidates like Kucinich and Mosely Braun are overlooked, while the media favorites are given an unfair amount of debate time. The media calls these other candidates the "minor" candidates, yet it is the media who has made them so.

In the meantime, Americans--those few who even bother to read or pay attention--make their decisions based on who is "electable" rather than who would be a good president.

Some system. We get what we deserve.